Taming The Villainesses novel Chapter 451

Looking down from a high place is quite an exhilarating experience.

Skyscrapers climbing higher and higher by the day. A view that reveals everything below. Airplanes. Spaceships.

Maybe humans are instinctively made to admire high places, like ladybugs. You just keep wanting to go higher.

I suppose I was like that too.

Sitting higher than anyone else and looking down at the world below—it was pretty fun. Opening a window ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) and watching the playground, the garden, the children playing, and the adults coming and going—it made time pass without me even noticing.

Even now, it's the same.

I stood at a place higher than anyone else in this world, overlooking my life and the lives of those colliding with it, all at a glance. The world was smaller and more intricate than I had imagined.

Like a precious glass box someone carefully crafted. Even the moments I cried, laughed, or frowned over annoying matters felt like the trivial games of children.

However—

I realized something long ago. That rather than watching from high above, it's better to go down beneath that window and play together with everyone.

“Everyone looks like they’re having fun.”

I too wanted to go down there right away—to the place where everyone laughed, cried, and lived, brushing against each other. But... the reason I couldn't do that was the same as before.

My eyes fixed on a distant hill from long ago. Like a little boy from an old, old time waiting for someone to come back, I waited for someone to return to this land.

“I wonder when they’ll come.”

“......”

“When do you think they’ll arrive?”

Sitting in a flower field, the most beautiful gift in the world, I asked the man behind me. As always, he remained silent.

I thought we’d spent quite a lot of time together here. Enough to at least make small talk. But he was far more tight-lipped than I expected. Was he still holding a grudge because I broke his sword? Or because I smashed his helmet with magic?

There were just too many things it could be.

Just when I was resigned to watching the sun set and rise again alone for yet another day— For the first time in what had been several days, no, months, he finally opened his mouth.

“Aren’t you angry with me?”

“Well.”

It would be a lie to say I wasn’t. But just as much as I resented him, I also liked him. A perfect fifty-fifty. So, plus and minus, zero.

“Isaiah Gospel.”

“......”

“I don’t know how you did it, but—you’re Solomon, and at the same time, you’re Isaiah. The words you showed me. The ones that told me to go back. The story about making a family and having children.”

“......”

“That was all you. I know that now. Because as much as you saw me, I saw you.”

The words I saw in my eyes held both malice and goodwill. The malice belonged to the fallen Demon King Solomon. The goodwill, to Isaiah—the father and husband.

Suddenly, I became curious.

“Why did you split into two in the first place?”

“Because beside a nymph... only good people can stay. Only kind, good people can remain near Beatrice.”

It was a vague explanation. But the nuance, I understood.

The Demon King Solomon must have known. That even if his precious nymph Beatrice returned to the world by a miracle... He himself, by then, would no longer be someone good or kind enough to be at her side.

And so the two were split. Even after they reunited as one again, he continued watching over me. He was helping me.

Because I understood that, I could neither resent nor forgive the man before me. That's what family is like. Yes—family. The man in front of me is my father.

But—

Since I’d never called him that even once in my life, the word wouldn’t come out of my mouth. It merely swirled in my mouth like a tiny vortex, then faded.

No matter how high I climb, some things are simply impossible.

Still, fortunately, we had plenty of time. If not today, then tomorrow. If not tomorrow, the day after. We’d find the right moment.

It was with that feeling that I looked out at the distant horizon of this eternal flower field—when I saw it. Far away, among the swaying petals, someone was walking toward us.

At that, both the man and I stood up.

The small figure gradually grew larger until I could make out her face, her expression, even her disheveled breath from running so hard.

It was exactly the face I had been waiting for.

“I... took a while, didn’t I?”

The woman spoke.

“I got a little lost. Had to come the long way around...”

A gentle hand touched my cheek.

“You... were waiting all alone this whole time, weren’t you? Suffering by yourself. And I didn’t even know... I don’t even know what to say...”

There were so many things I wanted to say. And truth be told, so many things I resented too. But at that single sentence that seemed to understand my heart, the snow that had piled up over a long winter melted like spring sunshine.

“Ah...”

So this was the feeling.

I think I understand it now.

No need for elaborate words. As long as it’s sincere, that’s enough. “I’m sorry.” “I love you.” Those words are enough—just as Elga once said.

Because this is what family means.

But—

My mother was wrong.

I wasn’t waiting alone. Now that I think about it, there were countless people who stayed with me. It was a surprisingly pleasant time.

When evening came, the children who played with me would return to their mothers' arms with happy faces. Now, I can understand how they must have felt.

With that same feeling, I took her soft, cool hand in mine.

“I wasn’t waiting alone.”

Rustle.

With my other hand, I pointed at the man standing silently like a shadow over there. He’d been around when things felt confusing and lonely. I’d relied on him for a lot.

“......”

“......”

The gazes of a man and woman long separated finally met. No one seemed to know what to say, so all remained silent.

Still, a corner of my heart filled up with the realization that I had a mother and a father. And yet, another part of it felt empty, aching slightly.

I have a family.

Not just here.

Out there in that distant world, too... My family is surely still waiting for me.

At that moment—

As if sensing my wistful gaze, the man spoke.

“Go, Teo Gospel.”

“Go where? I belong here now. We’re finally together as a family.”

At my words, the man gave a faint, somber smile.

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